Cloudways vs Kinsta for a 25,000-visit WordPress site
Cloudways bills for a server, Kinsta for a plan sized by visits or bandwidth. What each costs for one WordPress site, and what the pages do not say.
The short answer
The two hosts bill for different things. Kinsta sells fixed plans: the Single plan is $35 a month on monthly billing or $350 a year, and on Kinsta's pricing page it covers an estimated 35,000 visits a month (or 20 GB of server bandwidth, depending on the billing basis you choose). Cloudways sells a server: you pick a cloud provider and a size, from $14 a month for 1 GB of RAM, billed hourly with a monthly cap. For one site with about 25,000 visits, Kinsta's own visit estimate puts you inside its entry plan. Cloudways publishes no visit figure for its servers, so the size you need is a judgement about your site, not a number on the page.
That difference is the real comparison: a plan priced to your traffic against a server priced to its resources. Neither price below is a total cost of ownership. For the wider market see our guide to WordPress hosting prices, renewals and limits and the Kinsta vs WP Engine comparison.
Kinsta: fixed plans
| Plan | Monthly billing | Annual billing | Server bandwidth | Storage | CDN bandwidth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single 20GB (1 install) | $35 a month | $350 a year | 20 GB | 10 GB | 125 GB |
| WP 2 (2 installs) | $70 a month | $700 a year | 40 GB | 20 GB | 250 GB |
| WP 5 (5 installs) | $115 a month | $1,150 a year | 65 GB | 30 GB | 500 GB |
Sources: [3]
Kinsta lists the first month of a new plan as free, 14 days of backup retention on Single, 24/7 support and unlimited free migrations. On the billing basis "Visits" the Single plan is shown as 35,000 estimated visits a month. The page states that annual billing saves two months. It does not state what the plan renews at after the first year, so no renewal figure is given here. Our dated rows are on the Kinsta page.
Sources: [3]
Cloudways: a server by size
| Server | Monthly price | RAM | vCPU | NVMe storage | Transfer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Micro | $14 | 1 GB | 1 | 25 GB | 1 TB |
| Small | $28 | 2 GB | 1 | 50 GB | 2 TB |
| Medium | $54 | 4 GB | 2 | 80 GB | 4 TB |
These are the entry configurations shown by default on Cloudways' pricing page (DigitalOcean, Basic, Premium). Billing is hourly with a monthly cap: the Micro server is listed at $0.0208 an hour, which reaches the $14 monthly cap if it runs all month. Other cloud providers and sizes are on the page and are priced differently. The page does not give a visit capacity for any server, and it does not say how long the free trial lasts in a way we could confirm (3 or 5 days). Our dated rows are on the Cloudways page.
One site, 25,000 visits: the subscription side
| Option | Per month | Per 12 months | What the page lists |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kinsta Single, monthly billing | $35 | $420 | 35,000 estimated visits, 20 GB bandwidth, 10 GB storage, 125 GB CDN; first month free |
| Kinsta Single, annual billing | $29.17 equivalent | $350 | Same plan; annual billing saves two months |
| Cloudways Micro | $14 | $168 | 1 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 25 GB NVMe, 1 TB transfer; no visit figure |
| Cloudways Small | $28 | $336 | 2 GB RAM, 1 vCPU, 50 GB NVMe, 2 TB transfer; no visit figure |
| Cloudways Medium | $54 | $648 | 4 GB RAM, 2 vCPU, 80 GB NVMe, 4 TB transfer; no visit figure |
Side by side
| Characteristic | Cloudways Flexible | Kinsta WordPress Hosting |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | from $14/mo— verified; opens the source in a new tab | from $35/moSource changed · (past the re-check window) — verified; opens the source in a new tab |
| Official site | Visit site of Cloudways Flexible(partner link, opens in a new tab)Partner link — We may earn a commission if you buy through this link. It does not change how we describe the product. | Visit site of Kinsta WordPress Hosting(official site, opens in a new tab) |
Catalogue entry prices (non-promotional rates)
- from $14/mo— verified; opens the source in a new tabVisit site of Cloudways Flexible(partner link, opens in a new tab)Partner link — We may earn a commission if you buy through this link. It does not change how we describe the product.
- from $35/moSource changed · (past the re-check window) — verified; opens the source in a new tab
Choose by how you want to be billed
Pick Kinsta if you want a plan sized to your traffic, with a published visit estimate, support and backups named on the page, and you accept a fixed monthly or annual price. Pick Cloudways if you would rather size a server yourself, pay by the hour up to a monthly cap, and are comfortable judging how much server your site needs, since the page gives no visit figure. For a 25,000-visit site the published numbers favour neither automatically: Kinsta's entry plan is the documented fit, while a Cloudways Micro or Small server may or may not be enough depending on the site. This is an editorial summary of published list prices, not a ranking and not based on testing either host.
Editorial opinion
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
- Is Cloudways cheaper than Kinsta?
On list prices the entry Cloudways server ($14 a month) costs less than Kinsta's Single plan ($35 a month, or $350 a year). They are not equivalent: Kinsta's plan lists an estimated 35,000 visits, backups, support and migrations, while Cloudways' page gives server resources and no visit figure.
- Will Kinsta's entry plan handle 25,000 visits a month?
Kinsta's pricing page shows the Single plan as 35,000 estimated visits a month on its visits billing basis, and as 20 GB of server bandwidth on its bandwidth basis. Check how Kinsta defines a visit and your own traffic before relying on either figure.
- How does Cloudways billing work?
Cloudways prices servers by the hour with a monthly cap: the Micro server is listed at $0.0208 an hour and $14 a month. See its help page on monthly versus hourly billing for the rules.
- What do these hosts renew at?
Kinsta's pricing page shows a free first month and a saving of two months on annual billing, but states no renewal price after the first year. Cloudways' pricing page shows a per-month price with no renewal terms. Check both before you commit.
Sources and checks
Official pages used
Sources
Nikita Latyshev is the founder of LATYNEX Labs, an independent publication about business software and infrastructure. LATYNEX Labs is published by Latynex Trade OÜ, Estonia. How the site checks facts, handles sponsorship and earns money is described on its methodology, editorial policy and affiliate disclosure pages.